


Spring Cleaning with a Man on the Lam

by SugarLime



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andreil, Domestic, House Cleaning, M/M, Soft/fluff, Spring Cleaning, and andrew gets kicked out, fight and make up, neil cleans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 19:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19797058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarLime/pseuds/SugarLime
Summary: Neil glared at the wrapper Andrew had tossed on the floor next to his chair. He stalked over with a nasty frown and leveled a glare at Andrew. Andrew met his glare with an empty expression.“What?” He asked, following Neil’s gaze as it tuned to the discarded wrapper, “it’s a wrapper,” he said wisely.His gut did a small flip as he tried to figure out why his boyfriend was mad.





	Spring Cleaning with a Man on the Lam

**Author's Note:**

> AftG is Nora Sakavic's amazing book series which starts with The Foxhole Court. All the praise to her for her series and of course all credit to her for these wonderful characters.  
> I blame my friend for calling me out on my secret cleaning kink and inspiring me to write this. So. Here's my first ever posted fic!

Neil glared at the wrapper Andrew had tossed on the floor next to his chair. He stalked over with a nasty frown and leveled a glare at Andrew. Andrew met his glare with an empty expression.

  
“What?” He asked, following Neil’s gaze as it tuned to the discarded wrapper, “it’s a wrapper,” he said wisely.

  
His gut did a small flip as he tried to figure out why his boyfriend was mad. They had moved in together a few months ago, but he still felt like he was learning how to read Neil’s glares and gazes. Neil had spent so long pretending that nothing got to him that figuring out when something was wrong still felt like a guessing game to Andrew. None of this showed on his face as he stared at the wrapper.

  
“It is a wrapper,” Neil responded, still glaring at it like he would be able to incinerate it with his eyes.

  
Hesitantly Andrew picked it back up, watching Neil watch him. He moved to push it in to his pocket- no, that earned him a frown. He stood and went to the trash can- the frown lessened. He tossed the wrapper in- and oh, there was the smile he loved so much.

  
“You could just tell me that you wanted me to throw it away,” Andrew said, feigning boredom as he tried to get his heart rate back under control.

  
“I could. I could also kick you out of the house-“ Neil walked over to where Andrew was, and Andrew couldn’t help the icy claw that stretched up his spine as he considered whether or not he had fucked up badly enough to make Neil break up with him and kick him out in one fell swoop. “-until I finish spring cleaning,”

  
“What?”

  
“Listen Andrew, I love you, but I have been cleaning since this morning and you have put two dirty dishes, three empty bottles, and a wrapper on the floor that I have swept twice now. I am going to actually go insane if you stay here and make messes. So get out. Go to Aarons, got to Nicky’s, go to Renee’s, I don’t care. Come back after 6 tonight and I will take care of dinner for us,” Neil sounded like a tired parent as he listed off the mess Andrew had made. Andrew winced internally at each accusation, trying not to take Neil’s exhausted tirade personally.

  
When Neil finished he smiled sheepishly at Andrew and apologized, “it’s not like I don’t want you here, but I want to get the cleaning finished quickly, okay?” he said, opening his arms in an invitation for a hug.

  
Andrew groused as he hugged Neil, and didn’t stop until he had packed a backpack filled with snacks and had the door open to leave.  
“Six o clock?” Andrew confirmed.

  
“Six o clock,” Neil agreed, waving to Andrew.

  
As Andrew closed the door, he realized that seven hours felt like an awfully long time. He shook the feeling off and called Renee.

Neil surveyed the apartment once Andrew was gone. He silently admonished himself for letting things get as bad as they were. There were dishes still sitting on the counter that had never really been given a home. There were clothes lying on the back of a chair whose owner was ambiguous. The floor was mostly clean from Neil’s earlier sweeping, but he still needed to vacuum and mop at least a few spots where grime had built up. The real problem was every surface between the floor and ceiling that was covered in papers, cigarette trays, toys, and general clutter.

  
Neil grimaced and started with the clothes.

  
He tried to convince himself that simply folding what was sitting out was good enough, but ended up pulling all of both his and Andrew’s clothes out of their dresser. He went through each piece, unfolding it, deciding if he still wanted it, deciding if it needed to be ironed out, then either refolding it or setting it aside. Neil still didn’t have many clothes, and Andrew was more interested in stealing what he did have than buying his own, so sorting through the pile didn’t take long. Before he repacked the clothes Neil vacuumed out the drawers, wiped them down, and slipped in some packets to keep everything smelling fresh.

  
The clothes fit back in to the drawers easily, and Neil was satisfied with the new sorting method he had come up with. The most well-worn clothes went towards the front of each drawer, and the drawers were separated by clothing type, and season if there needed to be more than one drawer. Neil had considered how quickly they could grab clothes if they needed to leave suddenly, and whether or not what they left behind would leave a trail big enough for anyone to follow back to them.

The dishes were next. Neil unpacked the small box that had been sitting on their counter since July. He tried to convince himself that simply putting away the stray pieces of cookware would be enough. Sighing, he began pulling every dish they owned out of the cabinets. The cabinets were cleaned, starting with a cursory wipe down and devolving in to a full deep clean that ended when the tape Neil shoved in to the corners didn’t pick up any more lint or dust.

  
After the cabinets had been dealt with he washed each plate and bowl they had, taking a moment to remember the circumstances in which they had gotten each of their mismatched bowls in. One had been at a flea market. Erik had brought them one from Germany last Christmas. They had gotten one at an antiques shop in Tennessee when their car had gotten a flat in a small town they had been passing through.

  
Once the dishes had been cleaned and dried Neil moved on to the bake ware. He wasn’t sure how they had ended up with three of the same 9 x 13 baking dish, but he tossed two of them, silently cursing Matt and Renee’s mothers for shoving all of their old baking tools on to the boys when they had learned that Andrew liked to cooked.  
For the first few months they had lived together everyone had assumed Neil was cooking the delicious food they served when they had guests over. It had been a case of Andrew putting something in the oven and shouting out the baking time, relying on Neil to actually get the food out when it was done.

  
Neil went through each piece with a critical eye, and stored the bake ware in the lower cabinets, keeping everything separated. If someone was searching through their things they would find the matched plates and cups first. The sentimental bowls were stored as high as Andrew could easily reach, out of line of sight, but close enough for someone who knew where they were to grab and smash quickly if they were trying to erase their trail.

  
Neil turned to eye the desk, tv console, dining table, and various side tables in the house. Each one had its own dedicated clutter he would need to take on. 

* * *

Andrew pouted, or as close as Andrew got to pouting, against the arm of Renee’s couch. He was lying across the whole length of it, leaving Renee to sit in a nearby kitchen chair and watch him contemplatively.

  
“You’re pouting,” she pointed out, earning a venomous glare from Andrew.

  
“I’m not pouting, I’m sulking,” he deadpanned back, “this involves much more brooding than pouting. Also I want to punch something more.”

  
“Want to fight?” Renee offered, and when Andrew shook his head she thought for a moment before offering, “want to talk about it”? That earned her another leveled stare.  
“Neil kicked me out of the house,” Andrew said. He said it like he was commenting on the weather, but Renee tensed beside him, “I’m not allowed back until six tonight,” he finished.

  
“Did you guys fight?” she asked.

  
“No. He’s cleaning, and he won’t let me back in until he’s done. He says I’m too messy,” Renee caught the hint of disgust in Andrew’s voice and had to hide the way her shoulders relaxed. At least it was nothing truly serious.

  
“And you’re mad because he called you messy,” a head shake from Andrew, “because he kicked you out,” a pause, then a shake, “because you wanted him to ask you to help,” a longer pause, then a nod in the affirmative. Renee sat back, pleased with how honest Andrew had become with himself.

  
“But now I got kicked out, and he’ll just do it all himself,” Andrew said, “again,” he added more quietly.

  
“Andrew, if you want to help him you can go back and help him. Why don’t we go to the store and you can pick up some supplies,” Rene offered. She had to hold back a laugh at the way Andrew froze. She knew him well enough to know that the idea hadn’t even crossed his mind. 

* * *

Neil pulled the envelopes and letters off each table first. The important bills and notices went in to his new scrapbook, safely hidden behind pictures of him and Andrew. The less important papers all got shredded, and anything that had their names on it got shredded again and set aside to be burned.

  
The ashtrays were next, and they got emptied then wiped clean. Andrew emptied them regularly, but soot still clung to the bottom in some places. The butts could be used for DNA matching, so they got put with the shredded papers to be burnt.

  
The miscellaneous leftovers were last, and Neil took his time sorting through the capsule toys Andrew kept bringing home, and the half empty gum packets, and the rubber bands and left over hair ties from when one of the girls visited, and the bottle caps and small pieces of trash. He went through each piece and decided whether it was worth keeping. If he kept it, he wiped it off and put it away, the rest went in the trash. The tables got wiped down next, and Neil wished he had a proper cleaner for the surfaces, but made do with a damp rag. He replaced each of the items on the tables, making sure the heaviest ashtrays were closer to the back of the room.

  
Neil turned to wipe the windows down. The one that opened to the fire escape was grimy with finger prints already. He frowned at the cloth he had. If he didn’t use glass cleaner, he would only manage to smear the prints around. Andrew and Neil had used the last of an ancient bottle they had swiped from the Foxhole when they had left just a few days ago. They had been testing whether or not they could freeze it using dry ice. For science.

  
Neil sighed, resigning himself to having to change out of his dirty clothes and go out. He was halfway to the bedroom when the door banged open. He froze for a minute, his had automatically finding the heavy glass ashtray he had recently moved. The fight left his body when Andrew called out his name, and Neil went over to him, letting the shorter boy hug him in greeting.

  
“Andrew, you’re back. Did you forget something? You can get whatever but I’m still cleaning,” Neil started, already eyeing the bags Andrew had in his hands, wary of the messes his boyfriend could easily make.

  
“Okay, listen, I didn’t forget anything, but I came back early anyways,” Andrew paused, brandishing the bags, “I’m gonna help you clean”.

  
Neil was frozen long after Andrew had pushed his way past him into the room. He was still standing there when Andrew pulled a new bottle of glass cleaner and began wiping down the fire escape window. He only managed to start moving again when Andrew asked him to bring paper towels over to the window. Andrew had remembered that Neil had told him that you had to use the name brand paper towels with glass cleaner. Andrew had bought cleaning supplies to help Neil clean. Andrew had come back home to help Neil clean.

  
“It has to be perfect,” Neil heard himself saying. Andrew nodded, “there can’t be any finger prints on the windows or dust on the sills,” Andrew nodded again. “And you have to get the oven too, and the mirror in the bathroom,” Neil wasn’t sure why Andrew was still nodding patiently. Or more precisely why he hadn’t been punched through the fire escape window yet. With some effort he shut his mouth.

The cleaning went quickly with the two of them working. Neil managed to scrub the soap scum off of the bath tub while Andrew took on every reflective surface in the house like they had personally affronted him. The evening culminated in a frenzied vacuum/Swiffer face off while they waited for their Chinese food to arrive.

  
As both boys reclined in the couch together with their feet intertwined Neil had to ask, “why did you come back? I was fine by myself you know”.

  
“I know,” Andrew answered simply.

  
“So why?” Neil asked again

  
“Neil. I love you,” Andrew said.

  
Neil opened his mouth to ask for a third time, but closed it again a moment later. He realized that Andrew had just answered him.


End file.
